The Lion Versus The Snake
by theWeekendSquared
Summary: Fang and Dylan have a much-needed talk. (oneshot)


**So I love oneshots. And I love Dylan and Fang's interactions. So I combined them.**

 **This scene is a rewrite of the chapter in Nevermore where Fang and Dylan "talk" after Fang mysteriously reappears.**

* * *

They stood on opposite ends of the roof, sizing each other up as if readying for a boxing match.

Dylan eyed his opponent with a minute feeling of apprehension. He didn't know why Fang had called him on the roof, but if push came to shove, Dylan was pretty sure he could shove hard. What threw him off was the fact that Fang had come _back_ –which no one could have predicted. Fang had come back, sporting a face covered with purple bruises and cuts, and no other information as to where he had been or what he had been doing.

Dylan opened his mouth to ask a question, since it didn't look like Fang was going to be initiating any talking. "Why are you here?" he asked.

Fang shrugged and leaned on the flimsy railing. "I wanted to talk to you. Properly. Seems we've never done that before."

Dylan's toes curled up inside his sneakers. "No, we haven't."

He stared into his opponent's dark whirlpools of eyes, at the cool expression that masked all of Fang's inner emotions. Dylan wasn't going to be the one to blink first.

Fang smirked at Dylan's uneasy stature. "You scared of me, hotshot?"

Dylan winced at the words. Was his weakness really that visible? "I don't believe I have a reason to be."

He was hoping his words would put at least a dent in Fang's emotional armor, but the guy's expression didn't shift an inch. "Good. Then I can catch you by surprise."

"Why are you here?" Dylan asked again, more forcefully. "Why'd you come back?"

Fang stared at his fingernails, shaking his head. "Dylan. I know you're only, like, two years old, but I didn't know you had the same brain capacity as one. You know why I'm here. You've been sleeping in her bed every night."

Dylan winced again. How did he know? Nudge really was capable of spreading gossip at light-speed. "So?" he managed, trying to sound casual. As if he and Max were doing more than just sleeping. As if he had made enough headway that Fang would be left in the dust.

Fang shrugged. "I wouldn't have expected anything else from you."

Dylan blinked. "Huh?"

Fang smirked. "With me out of the picture, you swooped in to be the knight in shining armor. You've got an edge there. That _I_ gave to you. So I'd be surprised if you _weren't_ doing anything weird with her."

"It's not weird," Dylan said, feeling the need to justify his relationship with Max. Fang was making it seem insignificant, stupid even, and that wasn't the truth. "If you have to know, it was _he_ r idea."

Fang snorted. "Maybe it should stop."

"Why? I'm not good enough for her?"

"You might think you're protecting her, but you're not. So it needs to stop."

Dylan wanted to say that Max seemed to be just as in it as he was. He had half a mind to tell Fang about the treehouse, about Max's soft lips under his, about she had remarked that it was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever done for her. Could Fang top that? Had Fang ever even told Max that he loved her? "You left," Dylan said. "You left, and I didn't. So you don't get to be mad about this. You don't get to tell me what to do. No one thought you'd come back. _Max_ didn't think you'd come back. You left, while I never did and I never will."

"You _can't_ leave _._ You don't have free will! You've been programmed to love her! You _can't_ leave! And because of that, you'll never understand her, not in the ways that I can."

"You're the one screwing Max over in ways I can't even begin to describe. I was made to be her perfect other half. But you? You were made to screw her over, it seems. _You_ left her, and now you've come crawling back because Max's replacement didn't work out. You left her not once, not twice, but _three_ times. And she still trusts you, because she doesn't know that you're bad for her. She doesn't know that you're going to hurt her again. She wants to cling onto some hope left, and that's all that you can give her. False hope. You can't give her what she needs. You're a snake. You're only here to sink your teeth into something almost within your reach, to draw out all the blood, and then to disappear again."

"You know what you are?" Fang asked Dylan quietly. "You're a lion. You've marked your territory and you'll do anything to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. You might be fooling yourself that you're one of us. You might be convincing yourself that you're part of the Flock because you built Max a treehouse, because you put an arm around Nudge's shoulders while she cried for Angel, because you helped Iggy and Gazzy build another explosive. But you're not a bird, and you never will be. You're a _lion_. And while that might give you the false pretense of power… what you don't know is that lions are on the brink of extinction."

How did Fang know about the treehouse?

"You think _I'm_ bad for her?" Dylan spluttered.

"No. I don't think you're bad for her. I think you're too perfect." Fang said simply. "You know what, Dylan? You're the good guy. There's no baggage with you. You've been there for her since day one. So you're the good guy. You might even be the better guy. In fact, I'm done lying. You _are_ the better guy. You'll never hurt her –not intentionally, anyway –and you'll never put her in danger. And she needs that, I know."

Dylan blinked, blindsided.

"But… there's always going to be that hesitation in Max's head. The doubt of whether or not you really do love her unconditionally, or if this is all just programming in your head. And what if one day, ten years from now, the programming ends? And you leave her? She can't handle that stress. She can't handle another broken heart. I've already put her through that once. I don't want to leave her in the fear that you're going to do the same."

"But I _love_ her–"

"You can convince her all you want. But I've known her my entire life, and I know that she's always going to have some shadow of a doubt. And that's not your fault, necessarily. You're the good guy. But she'll never be completely happy with you, not as long as there's still the idea that it could all end with a snap of a finger."

"Have you ever told her you love her?" Dylan cut, and finally had a moment of triumph as the other boy's face slackened slightly. "Writing it in a note doesn't count."

"It doesn't matter. I… I…" Fang's blinked, and Dylan knew that he had caught him off guard. "What matters is that she knows."

"Knows what?"

Fang looked at the ground. "That I…" He grimaced. "You know."

"You can't even say it, can you?" Dylan asked tauntingly. "It's because your feelings aren't true. You _don't_ love Max –you just don't want me to have her."

"This isn't about you!" Fang snarled. "It was never about you! Jesus, Dylan, get some perspective!"

" _I_ should get some perspective? You're the one who keeps _leaving_!" Dylan shot back.

Fang brushed the dark hair off of his face so that Dylan could get the full blast of his piercing glare. "Yeah, well, I'm not leaving ever again. You can trust me on that."

"Why should I trust you? Why should any of the Flock trust you?"

Fang glanced at the sky, which was steadily turning gray. "If the Flock were all tied to an active train track and you only had time to save one of them before they all died, you would choose to save Max. Right?"

Dylan said nothing.

"Max expects you to. But if it was me, I would leap in front of the train, causing it to stop, so that _everyone_ could be saved. All your actions only go towards you and Max surviving. You don't care about anyone else. I do. And I can prove it." Fang took off his shirt, revealing the extent of his injuries. Dylan winced as he saw how Fang's right wing was completely crumpled, how the scratches on his back looked like they would never fully heal. "I would die for them all. I _have_ died for them all." Fang said.

"So you're not stepping down?" Dylan asked Fang, who smirked.

"You wish."

"Neither am I."

"Guess it's the lion versus the snake, then."

"Guess it is," Dylan said, nodding.

"Good luck. You're going to need it." Fang remarked, still smirking.

A flicker of a smile passed across Dylan's face. "May the best man win."

"Oh… I have no doubts about that." Fang said quietly, shaking Dylan's hand firmly. "I would _never_ underestimate a snake."

Dylan watched as Fang left the roof. He couldn't help a smile cross his face. Because at least now he knew where he and Fang stood.

And as for where Max stood…

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 **I don't think I could expand this further even if I wanted to, so good thing I don't want to. But the ending does very slightly remind me of the Reese Witherspoon movie _This Means War_ (which is a great watch). **

**Any thoughts?**


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